By SHARON K. GILBERT
June 24, 2009

IF THE SOUND of the word ‘golem’ is familiar, you may be thinking of the intriguing but sinister character ‘Gollum’ from JRR Tolkien’s trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”.

The term golem, however, actually refers to a creature European Jewish mythology. A ‘golem’ is an avenging agent formed from inanimate matter. Based on the Hebrew go′al ‘enu (גואלנו), which means “our redeemer or our avenger”, a ‘golem’ in the Bible refers to an ‘unshaped form’ (see Psalms139:16).

Two curious versions of the ‘golem’ are featured in the Fox television series, The X-Files. In the fourth season show, “Kaddish”, Mulder tracks down a killer who turns out to be an avenging robot made of mud. The X-Files golem in the season six episode “Arcadia”, is a monstrous killer composed of garbage–literally garbage. Playing on the “Forbidden Planet” theme of an avenging ‘id’, the creature hunts down and kills all who defy a man who runs an entire subdivision of upscale, cookie-cutter houses. (more…)

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